Report: A Home of Their Own

By: Daniel Lindsay and Fionnuala Earley
Published: June 2013

The prospect of owning a home is slipping away from young people across the country. Our new report looks at the average time it takes for First Time Buyers – couples, couples with children and single people – to save up the deposit on a home of their own.

Summary

Many young people in England aspire to buy
their own house – to give them a home they can make their own, and to provide
security for their futures. However, the
shortage of new affordable homes and rising house prices mean that increasingly
the prospect of home ownership is slipping away from many young people. Instead, they are often left either living
back with their parents, or else spending years in the unstable private rented
sector.

To assess the extent to which young people
are excluded from home-ownership, Shelter commissioned Fionnuala Earley
Consulting to produce data showing the relative lengths of time it takes
first-time buyers to save a 20% deposit, after taking into account current and
projected house prices, incomes, essential living costs (food, transport,
utilities) and rent, by household type and across the country. It provides some stark findings:

Couples who start a family in their twenties could be saving for a
deposit for 12 years – nearly double the time faced by childless couples.

Couples without a child face an average of six and a half years of
saving, and almost double that time in London (11 years).

Single people face the greatest barriers to home ownership. A single
person could need over 14 years to save enough for a deposit unless they can
find a partner, trapping many in uncertain private
renting or forcing them to live with their parents well into adulthood.

Using
this research, Shelter has created an online calculator for people to
find out how long it would take them or their children to save for a home of
their own in their area, based on their individual circumstances.